According to a known conventional method of fastening a rail to a tie, a single plate spring or a double-folded plate spring is placed on a tie in abutment with the flange of a rail and a spring seat, and then the plate spring is fastened to the tie with a bolt inserted downwardly through a hole in the plate spring. The disadvantage of this conventional method is that the bolt is likely to loosen due to vibrations caused by trains. Moreover, this arrangement permits the rail to be tilted by a transverse force applied to the rail by trains. Since the tilting action cannot be held below prescribed limits, the possibility of a derailment is increased.